Reviews

Hell on Earth gives the Pinhead character a bit more of the backstory hinted at in the previous sequel with some mixed results. The female friendship between the two leads is refreshing and grounds the film well in between scenes of people having their skin ripped off by hooks and partygoers being impaled by flying compact discs.

Warlock was an 80's horror film I'd avoided for some time, but having caught it on TV recently, I must say that my fears were unwarranted. It's an imaginative and entertaining fantasy, horror, and action movie hybrid with some impressive set pieces when you consider its low budget and limited resources.

Though Brian De Palma would soon finesse his style a bit with his next few films, that trademark wit and love of suspense are already present in Sisters, but it just comes with a layer of low budget grit over its canvas. In some ways this only adds to the bizarre story of two Siamese twins - one sane and the other insane - who are trailed by a nosy reporter after she witnesses one of them murder someone across the street from her apartment.

Lawrence Kasdan creates a perfect modern noir with tons of exciting twists and turns and one gut punch of an ending. The chemistry between William Hurt and Kathleen Turner will steam up your TV screen and the whole film captures that hot, sweaty, sticky, humid feeling better than any other film that comes to mind.

John Travolta is great in one of his best and most gritty roles as a soundman who observes an assassination while recording sound for a B-movie late at night. He gets caught up in the cover up and gets the help of the survivor, Nancy Allen, to assist him in getting to the bottom of this. Brian De Palma goes wild in the finale involving a huge Fourth of July parade with car crashes, thousands of extras, and fireworks. Beautiful Pino Donnaggio score as well.

Adult film star, Veronica Hart, shows off her capable dramatic chops as a woman who has nervous breakdown in her apartment due to attacks by a mysterious man and a bunch of gaslighting friends and relatives. It's a gritty, low budget mix of Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby that wisely keeps most of the action inside of the claustrophobic apartment.

Jennifer Connelly doesn't seem like someone you'd expect to see in the bloody, madcap world of Dario Argento, but she fits in nicely as the neglected teenage daughter of a movie star who can communicate with insects and uses this gift to help catch a killer. Music ranges from bizarre heavy metal to operatic synth to brooding drones which keeps the audience on its toes.

Filmmaker Dario Argento's over the top horror films have been described as operatic by many, so it seems only logical that he'd finally make a film that takes place almost completely on stage and backstage of an opera house where another black-gloved killer is murdering without rhyme or reason. The heavy metal scoring in parts can be a little distracting, but this beautifully shot insanity even by Argento's high standards at this time.

Terry O'Quinn gives the performance of his career as the psychotic stepfather of scream queen Jill Scholen who wants the perfect family at any cost. A subplot involving the brother of one of the stepfather's previous victims doesn't end up amounting to much, but besides that, it's a taut, easily digestible thriller with a great final act.

A spirited Spanish take on the end of days with tons of creative camera work, dark humor, and gore to appease even the pickiest of horror fans. It's certainly not your usual Christmas-themed horror film.

While the whole cast is wonderful, it's Brittany Snow who steals the show as the fun-loving porno queen prone to Stevie Nicks musical interludes. Ti West has been given a slightly larger budget to play with this time and he makes great use of it, milking every location for maximum atmospheric impact.

A car-load of 20-somethings break down and go to a nearby wax museum for help, not knowing that the owner's psychotic brother does terrible things to anyone who steps near their property.

An oddly paced nightmare of a low budget horror film with some very unforgettable images thrown in and a gleeful since of anarchy towards its finale where anything goes and logic flies out the window. Jocelyn Jones does unhinged madness very well and Chuck Connors cuts an intimidating shape as the quirky owner of this spooky wax museum.

Two twins spy on a nude couple having sex in a drive-in movie, one of them hacks them up with a hatchet, and blames the other for it. Years later, the institutionalized twin is released and the murders start back up much to the chagrin of their barely-holding-on mother who just wants everyone to have a nice Thanksgiving.

The gore effects are mostly impressive and very splashy and, unlike many slashers, there's a story in between the kill scenes involving Louise Lasser's unhinged mother character slowly falling apart at the seams and losing her grip on reality.

Years after murdering the girlfriend who broke up with him and her lover, a jilted war veteran start slicing and dicing a bunch of small town teens during a celebratory dance.

The good - Tom Savini's spectacular gore effects that will make even the most jaded gore hound wince, the creepy score, good use of moody locations, and an exciting finale.

The bad - most of the middle part of the film which amounts to several characters exploring old dark houses with flashlights and saying "look what I found!"

A city-wide power outage allows a group of psychotic inmates out on the street to terrorize their doctor and his hapless family as another doctor tries to stop them.

It's an all-star cast for this low budget slasher film that elevates it above the usual teenage body count movie, but Jack Sholder's direction shows a talent for orchestrating shocks and maintaining suspense. There's also a nice layer of dark humor covering the film that keeps things fun.

An American in Italy witnesses the attempted murder of an art gallery owner's wife and becomes the eyewitness. Unfortunately, the would-be-murderer wants to make sure he can't say another word and goes after him.

This was Dario Argento's first big splash as a film director and it's easy to see why it was such a big deal at the time. It's elegantly lit and filmed with a keen understanding of suspense and shock and the killer reveal is still an unexpected stunner to this day.

Years after murdering her philandering husband and his lover with an axe, a woman is released from a mental institution and giving a new lease on life...until the murders start up again.

This is one of William Castle's finest movies with the least amount of gimmicks. Having Joan Crawford star in it is the best gimmick of all and, while this film has been called camp, her performance is layered, believable, and moving at times. The axe murders are fairly gory for a black and white movie from the 60's and the final twist is well done.

A young girl is murdered right before her first communion and everyone in the town thinks her jealous sister is to blame as more dead bodies start to turn up.

Filled with atmosphere, melodrama, and a flair for the macabre, Alfred Sole's Alice, Sweet Alice is a triumph of low budget horror filmmaking. Obviously given very little money, Sole and his team work extra hard to squeeze as much production value out of their film as they can. A twisting, turning script that keeps you on your toes helps immeasurably as well.

After a mentally handicapped man is wrongfully murdered for the assault of a young girl, his killers are stalked and killed, one by one, by the apparition of a scarecrow. Is it someone who knows their secret or could it be the vengeful spirit of the man they murdered.

For an early 80's network TV movie, Dark Night of the Scarecrow delivers the creeps and then some. With a great cast, sharp direction, and tight scripting, it's hard to image a better example of TV horror than this. At times, it outdoes any theatrical horror film that was released around the same time.

A brother and sister return to their family farm to help their mother take care of their ailing father and discover that something sinister is watching over them, waiting to take their father's soul to hell.

Atmospheric, creepy, and filled with unforgettable moments of dread and unease, The Dark and the Wicked feels like someone's terrifying nightmare come to life. It's beautifully shot with wonderful acting, but the only downside is the somewhat abrupt ending.

A bunch of PR obsessed Broadway actors come to a small town to protest a lesbian girl not being allowed to go to prom and learn a bit about themselves along the way.

Musicals aren't usually my thing, but I found it hard not to be charmed by moments of this. The cast is excellent, the musical numbers are bouncy, and the message is beautiful.

A teenage boy moves into Nancy's old house from the first film and suffers from nightmares featuring child murderer Freddy Krueger who wants to use his body to do his dirty work and get back into the real world.

It's an interesting concept, but the rules are never fully established and things just start happening without any logical justification. There is one excellent transformation scene where Freddy tears through our hero's body and the mood of the film is appropriately dark and grim.

After the events of the first film, another camp opens up across the lake and, while they're getting ready for more campers, Jason shows back up and he's not too pleased that people are trespassing in his woods.

In the narrative sense, Friday the 13th Part 2 doesn't have a lot new to say that the previous film didn't cover. In fact, the plots are nearly identical in many ways, but it's the little details that help make it stand out. It gives us a great final girl with Ginny (Amy Steel) and most of the murders and suspense set pieces are not only better executed but better shot than the first film. It's a huge step up all around.

Two men accidentally release a frozen corpse from a previous zombie outbreak, allowing the gasses from the container to seep out into the graveyard next door and re-animating the corpses who are hungry for brains.

It's somewhat silly, but always 100% fun with just the right balance of humor and horror to still be effective at both. A really solid ensemble cast as well.

The kids of Elm Street have been sent to a mental hospital to deal with their fears of Freddy attacking them in their dreams and it's up to Nancy to help them after having her run in with Freddy.

Some shoddy effects might cause more laughter than chills, but a wonderful cast of teen characters has been assembled which keeps the audience's attention and sympathies. Freddy veers into stand up comic a bit too much, but not as much as he does in later sequels.